Senate Panel OKs Bill Targeting Gay Marriages

A controversial Assembly-passed bill to deny recognition of gay and lesbian marriages performed in other states cleared a final committee hurdle and went to the full Senate on Monday.

However, approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee occurred as the bill’s author lost a fight to strike from the measure a hostile amendment that would create a state registry for “domestic partners” of the same gender.

Assemblyman William J. “Pete” Knight (R-Palmdale) charged that creating a new category of civil “domestic partnerships” would merely redefine marriage and would invite a veto from Gov. Pete Wilson.

“To redefine marriage is wrong,” Knight said.

Rather than abandon the amended bill, Knight asked the committee to approve it in the hope that he can somehow restore the proposal to its original form in the final three weeks of the legislative session.

“If it’s still alive, I’ve got the chance to continue to talk to people and maybe convince somebody that during their last three weeks here they can do something right,” Knight told reporters later.

Knight conceded, however, that there was virtually no chance that the Democratic-dominated Senate would strip the domestic-partners amendment from the bill and restore the measure to its original form.

Five Democrats, one independent and a Republican voted for the bill, while a GOP member cast the only no vote.

Wilson had endorsed the bill when it would only have prohibited California from recognizing same-gender marriages performed in other states. But when the Senate Judiciary Committee last month amended it to add a registry of domestic partners, Wilson announced that he would veto it if it reached him.

Domestic partnerships would be established as civil contracts in which couples agreed to live in the same home and support each other financially. They also would be granted hospital visitation privileges, receive certain tax benefits enjoyed by heterosexual spouses and be included as heirs in certain wills.

Additionally, state and local government employers would be authorized to provide health insurance coverage to same-gender spouses of employees.

Same-gender marriages are not legal in any state, but Knight and his supporters from the religious right have warned that the Hawaii Supreme Court is expected to approve such marriages. They claim that homosexual couples from California would marry in Hawaii and have their unions recognized in California.

The notion of gay and lesbian marriages has touched off election year controversy. Some Democrats contend that it is an issue concocted by Republicans to drive a wedge between Democrats and their constituents.

Knight, who is running for the Senate, and other Republicans deny any such intent. They say that marriage between a man and woman is sacred and that same-gender unions threaten to undermine the institution.